Microsoft OneNote Post

As I read Dr. Bazan’s blog, I admit my guilt in being a teacher that associates with using Google Drive. I use Google Drive for the majority of my work as a teacher (e.g. lesson plans and powerpoints), and as a graduate school student. I had never heard of OneNote until looking into for this week’s assignment. The are many aspects for this program that I see myself using in my classroom. The ability to organize all educational aspects (e.g. lesson plans, homeworks, email) for your classroom in one place seems to be the ideal situation for any teacher. With all these wonderful aspects, the one I find invaluable is the ability to develop interactive lessons for my students. Click on me in order to set this up for your classroom. The ability to complete these interactive lessons has influenced me to implement them with my substitute plans. I can see this making my life tremendously easier if I ever become sick and have to send plans to a substitute.

Week 7 Reading/Viewing Reflection

Technology for Music Teaching & Learning has offered invaluable ways to implement technology into my classroom. However, offering technological methods for continued professional development is what I will find most valuable. Every year I attend the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) All-State Music Conference. It is a professional development weekend (Thursday through Saturday) for educators, and is connected to the All-State Music Festival for high school students. Other than this weekend, there are not many other professional development opportunities that would be as valuable for me.

Attending these one hour sessions at the professional conferences is always valuable, but developing a Personal Learning Network (PLN) I believe is the most beneficial of all. I find it interesting that prior to this class, I had developed a kind of PLN through Facebook. I have liked many professional groups on Facebook (e.g. National Association for Music Education) and now am receiving posts on my news feed of the newest developments from these groups. I am interested in developing my PLN, and joining “communities of practice” through Google, Facebook, and any other forms of social media (Bauer, 2014, p. 176). There are so many benefits to having a PLN, including the ability to search for anything that you need to know. When I started teaching my History of Rock and Roll class I was absolutely lost on where to start developing my curriculum. I was lucky to have colleagues in the History department at Westport High School that sent me to the Education page of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This website led me to endless lesson plans that I was able to use as I developed my curriculum. I have to admit I am confused about the concept of “real simple syndication” (RSS) (Bauer, 2014, p. 175). I am unsure how RSS enables notifications for my PLN. I plan on doing some research on how this concept works and plan on using this technology to help me develop more ideas for my classroom.

Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) has become a necessity for all teachers. How educators teach in the 21st century will never be the same now that technology is a part our everyday life. I found the results of Bauer’s TPACK study interesting as far as the levels of competence that music teachers thought were important. I have to agree with the order of competencies that music teachers should have. However, I would have thought that knowledge of technology would have been higher on the list of necessary competencies. I wonder if this study would look any different if someone were to repeat it in 20 years? The way that technology has developed over the last 20 years I would hypothesize that these levels would change at least slightly if this study were to be repeated in another 20 years.

Week 6 Reading/Viewing Reflection

A common thread throughout this course for me has been the concept of how I can reach the percentage of students who are not in my performance ensembles. The reading this week has given me creative solutions on how I can do this. I realize that I have driven students away from my music elective classes like History of Rock and Roll due to not embracing the music that they enjoy. I have realized through teaching History of Rock and Roll that musical preference plays a substantial role in the life of our students. I spend the first day of class having a conversation about what types of music these students enjoy. My experience with these conversations proves that students musical preferences “are a result of ‘cultural, historical, societal, familial, and peer-group background’” (Bauer, 2014, p. 105).

The difficulty I have with this conversation is how I can connect this conversation with the predetermined curriculum for this class. Often times the music that these students enjoy listening to are not styles of Rock and Roll covered in this class. However, this reading allowed me to develop ideas of how these students can share the music that they enjoy. Having students develop blogs create endless possibilities of what these students can learn. Kerstetter (2010) suggests that blogs can be developed to reflect on “personal listening experiences,” “classroom listening,” and “performances attended” (Bauer, 2014, p. 113). Kerstetter (2010) also suggests that a blog could be developed to “compare and contrast two different compositions or different versions of a performance of a composition” (Bauer, 2014, p. 113). I detail these blogging options due to my intention of including these blogging ideas into my History of Rock and Roll class this school year. Once students have developed their blog I will have them develop weekly blog posts reflecting on a personal musical experience, music that was listened to in class, or about a performance they have attended or are going to attend. I also plan on assigning a blog assignment where students will critically compare and contrast a song that was covered in class to a song from one of their favorite artists.

Another difficulty I have with reaching students in my History of Rock and Roll class is how I can teach them to become “lifelong music listeners” (Bauer, 2014, p. 109). I have been influenced through the reading this week to develop my students “analytical ear” (Bauer, 2014, p. 109). I liked the idea of using Powerpoint presentations as a listening map by syncing the presentation to change slides at certain points of the song. It is a wonderful tool in teaching students to analyze music. I plan on using this method when introducing the blues progression in my History of Rock and Roll class. I will start the song by having the first slide play through an entire chorus of the blues progression. Each subsequent slide will then be each individual chord of the form with the Roman numeral of the representative chord. I will then alternate between these two methods of introducing the form for the remainder of the song. The intention of this method will be to have students distinguish whether or not a song contains the blues progression.  

As I become familiar with the concept of WebQuests, I find how useful it can be in my curriculum. Many of the units that I teach in my History of Rock and Roll class can be transferred to a Webquest (e.g. Blues progression, influential early rock and roll musicians, the British invasion). The Webquest project for this class I will develop a WebQuest teaching students about the blues progression and intend on including the powerpoint mentioned earlier. The process of this WebQuest will include students learning the social and cultural influences of the blues, and learning exactly what the blues progression is. The evaluation of student understanding will be in the form of student compositions using Mixcraft or GarageBand, and a written assessment where students will distinguish songs containing the blues progression from songs not containing the blues progression. I am excited to develop and implement this WebQuest for this coming school year.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Week 5 Reading/Viewing Reflection

The ability to assess students in technological ways resonated with me this week. Having valid and reliable methods of assessing students while being able to retain students in my program is difficult. I find that most of my performance ensemble students are willing to be assessed because they understand that assessments are part of being in school. However, a percentage of my performance ensemble students are involved in the music program purely because they enjoy being involved but want no part of being assessed. Developing creative methods of assessments would be helpful in assessing these students.

SmartMusic, audio-visual assessments, and recording software are three methods in which students can be assessed in a valid and reliable way while still having fun. Of these methods, SmartMusic would be the formal assessment method of the three. However, balancing technical exercises with fun activities would still allow my students enjoyment in using technology. Audio-visual assessments can be equally, if not more; valuable, valid, and reliable than SmartMusic. Audio-visual assessment adds aspects of assessment that can not be assessed in SmartMusic. Video assessment is able to assess visual aspects like posture, facial expression, and the visual aspects of breath support where SmartMusic is unable to capture these aspects. I see videorecording chorus rehearsals as a valuable formative assessment because it allows students to critically see the visual aspects of their performance. Recording software like Audacity or GarageBand can be an alternative to SmartMusic. It would allow students to record themselves, convert the file to a more user-friendly file type (e.g. mp3) and submit this file for assessment. This is how I currently grade students in my piano class. Every station in the piano lab is connected to a Mac mini and has internet connection. When the student has recorded a song to be assessed in GarageBand, they convert the GarageBand file to an mp3. They then upload the mp3 file to a shared folder in Google drive. Once they have uploaded the mp3 I can listen to the performance and provide formative/summative feedback according to the rubrics that was provide them with on the first day of class. 

I was glad to read the section on Backward Design as it is a concept my school district has adopted. As a first-year teacher, having never heard of this concept, was worried about applying this concept in my classroom. After four years I have become comfortable with developing new units of instruction according to this curriculum model. I can see how this model can be applied to learning being “contextual, active, social, and reflective” (Bauer, 2014, p. 147). Building lessons within your units of instruction in Backward Design accommodating these learning styles ultimately leads to self-regulation. Self-regulation is a concept that has been a goal in my professional career. The philosophy I have developed over the years of being a private instructor and a public school teacher is to teach my students to become independent musicians. If students are not able to self-regulate their abilities as a musician, then they will never be able to become a lifelong musician. They will always have to rely on someone else to tell them what they are doing correctly or incorrectly. Implementing assessment methods like SmartMusic, audio-visual recordings, and recording software is one way in developing the independent musicians that I hope to develop. Not only is it a way I can give them a grade for my class, it is also a way they can assess their own performances after they leave high school.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Week 4 Reading/Viewing Reflection

I am an advocate of teaching students to become independent musicians. However, I find it easier to teach private students to become independent musicians because teaching students one on one allows time to show that student how they can individually develop as a musician. In order to teach a group of students to become independent musicians we often have to rely on technological aids in order to offer individual attention. Recommendations of implementing technology as an aid in developing the psychomotor process for our students is what I found to be most valuable this week. The technologies in this reading that I find most valuable in my classroom are videos, SmartMusic, and audio recordings. These three technologies are invaluable methods in developing the “cognitive stage,” the “associative stage,” and the “autonomic stage” in our students (Bauer, 2014, p. 80).

I have developed a method in teaching my beginning brass students how to develop range. I have successfully taught this instructional method for over ten years in my private instruction practice. I intentionally do not use music notation during this process and pride myself in having students learn this process by rote. The method starts by trumpet students lip slurring Low C to G (2nd line). Once they develop this, I teach them the notes in between C and G. I then teach students how to lip slur to a high C, which is followed by learning the entire C scale. I then continue this process until they have developed their range to the G on top of the Treble clef. Once we reach this point, I teach them the entire Circle of Fifths and the chromatic scale from F sharp below the Treble clef to the G they have just learned how to play. I have had much success with this method, and have successfully transfered this method to the other brass instruments. It has been such an invaluable method for my private brass students that I will develop a video of this method for my beginning band students in my district.

I am constantly asking myself how I can get my students to practice more. SmartMusic and recording practice sessions are two methods I can introduce to my students to help motivate them to practice. SmartMusic has become the industry standard in helping students to practice, and for teachers to assess their students. SmartMusic offering students the opportunity to develop skills like technique and improvisation, and offering accompaniments to help develop these skills are quite valuable. What I find most valuable about SmartMusic, and recording practice sessions, is its ability to provide feedback. Bauer mentions that receiving feedback from SmartMusic, and listening to recorded practice sessions, are both methods in developing students “metacognition and self-regulation” (Bauer, 2014, p. 86). Teaching students how to develop these skills is crucial in teaching them to become independent musicians. I currently do not utilize SmartMusic due to the financial constraints of my district, but will often times record rehearsals. Prior to playing the recording for the students, I will have them fold a piece of paper in half the long way. On one side of the paper I will have them write general comments on how the piece could be performed better as a whole, and the other side of the paper are comments and/or questions about individual mistakes. We will then write notes on the whiteboard on how the piece could be better as a whole. I will then plan subsequent rehearsals to address these issues and have students ask individual questions as the piece of music evolves.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Chromatik and SmartMusic Reflection

This week was the first time I had heard of Chromatik, and I have found that it offers a plethora of performance and educational opportunities for students. As I explored this website I find that it is easy to navigate, easy to use, and is intuitive. Once you develop an account, it is easy to access sheet music and videos of 100s of songs. Students are constantly asking me where they can find sheet music for their favorite songs. Now I know the perfect website to send them too. Educators are constantly being asked to implement technology in our classroom, and Chromatik is one of the many solutions. For example, Chromatik offers numerous scales notated for all instruments. Students can access this website to practice scales, and listen to model videos of these scales being performed properly.

As I explored the website, Chromatik offered that this program can also be used for sight reading activities during rehearsals. Students would only need a method of accessing the exercises during class (e.g. iPads). Teachers would decide which songs they wish to use for the sight reading activity, and students can access the song for their instrument with their free subscription. This website can also be used in a guitar class setting as well. This website offers six lessons for an introduction to guitar class and an endless amount of songs for students to access. These six lessons include learning how to tune your guitar, and learning how to read tab. I am not a guitarist, but have always wanted to find a way to teach my students how to play songs they would enjoy playing. I plan on using Chromatik in my guitar class this school year as an incentive to students learning the assignments that I give them. Once students have completed a tested assignment, I will let them sign out a chromebook from the library. At this point, they can log onto Chromatik and learn a song that they would enjoy playing.

 

Smartmusic has become the industry standard for assessment in performing ensembles. It is easy to navigate and is intuitive in use. Smartmusic is intended for assessment, but it does not need to be used for educational purposes. It can also be used for entertainment, and for general personal practice purposes. I have many music educator friends who use this program for their own practice. I do not use Smartmusic for my personal practice but did use it in my student teaching experience. This program is incredible for student learning because it offers a built in tuner and metronome, an endless amount of technical exercises to develop musicianship, and an endless amount of repertoire to keep student interest. Its most important offering is the ability to give students immediate feedback once they have recorded an assignment. When students start playing an instrument they often have a difficult time distinguishing what needs to be corrected when practicing. Having immediate feedback from smartmusic allows students to develop their skills immediately instead of having to wait until the next time they see their instructor. The main selling feature for educators is the gradebook feature. Once students submit an assignment, the grade Smartmusic gives them is compiled into a gradebook that only the teacher can see. 

The purposes of these programs seem quite different in the short amount of time I have been able to explore them. The main purpose of Chromatik is to be able to access songs that students would like to learn. Its lesser but still relevant purpose is the educational material that it offers. In the help section of this website, Chromatik admits in wanting to develop the educational aspect of the program however they realize their limitations in this aspect. Smartmusic is quite the opposite. The main purpose of Smartmusic is the educational aspects and the development of students as musicians. This program is quite developed and has become a standard in music assessment. Although these programs are quite different in their purposes, the one common thread they have is their consistency in music literacy. Chromatik and Smartmusic both concentrate on students having to read music notation when learning songs. All to often, especially in learning guitar, instruction is focused on learning by rote. Although learning by ear is an important aspect of being a musician, becoming musically literate is also an important aspect of being a musician.

Week 3 Reading/Viewing Reflection

Teaching students how to compose is an essential portion of a child’s musical development. The reading this week was based on how teachers should approach teaching composition. Bauer stated two common approaches to composition: “standard music notation,” and “non-notational compositional strategies” (Bauer, 2014, p. 59). Prior to reading this week, I believed that students should know how to read music in order to compose music. However, the following statement changed my thought process entirely: “Skilled teachers can use this as an entry point to further develop students’ musical understanding” (Bauer, 2014, p. 60). With new technologies, a student can learn how to compose without being musically literate. If a teacher is doing their job properly, we can teach the students who are not musically literate to become musically literate through using technologies like Soundation, Mixcraft, and GarageBand. This reading has inspired me to change two things about my Electronic music class. First is to be more involved in the process of teaching students to compose using Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). Second is to teach these students to be musically literate through composing in DAWs. In the past, the projects for this class has been set up where I would hand students directions on how to set up a project. I would then give them minimal feedback on how they were progressing. Then we would move on to the next project. I believe I had done this because I felt that I was not comfortable with the technology. After reading this week, I want me and my students to be more involved with the compositional process and to become musically literate. I am inspired to make this class more rigorous for me and my students.

As a first year teacher, my cooperating teacher was a wealth of knowledge in music technology. He was the previous Electronic music teacher and was able to set me up with everything he had taught in that class. Over the last few years I have found myself becoming complacent. After this week’s readings, I feel rejuvenated due to being able to understand concepts of this subject better than when I started. Although I had heard of these terms before, Bauer’s explanation of the following concepts clarified how these concepts work: connection between soundwaves, frequency/Hertz, and amplitude/decibels; differences between analog and digital recording; and the the way he categorized audio file types by “lossless” and “lossy” categories (Bauer, 2014, p. 31). I absolutely have a better grasp on these concepts and can bring these concepts back to my Electronic music class.

All the applications that have been used in this class thus far has been useful for many different reasons. Soundation is no exception. The sharing capabilities of cloud-based programs are always valuable. Although there was only a limited time to explore Soundation, I find the loops in Mixcraft and GarageBand to be better quality. In regards to my musical practice and performance, I find that I can just work quicker in Mixcraft or GarageBand. In my current teaching situation, I do not find Soundation as beneficial in my teaching and student learning since Mixcraft and GarageBand are easily accessed in my building. There is always a value for any resource for music teachers. Especially when it is a free, and cloud based program that allows teachers to supplement their program.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to

music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.